I have seen it before, but it struck me this Saturday that my MAID (once every two weeks, unless she can finagle more) periodically shows up in a new looking SUV. This reminded me again that most people in this country live REALLY WELL, in comparison with most of the rest of the world. Even when my daughters and I took a tour trip to London and Paris, our tour guide (who lived in Paris, although American) kept saying how "hard" life was in PARIS (not hard enough, obviously, for her to stop living there).
When a maid's family can afford an SUV (her husband does male work on about the same level), you know that life in the U.S. is NOT "hard" for most people (except in comparison to "the rich"). This also shows that people somehow are continuing to afford gasoline, despite the astronomical prices, without being forced to give up their SUV.
ME (I know this is not grammatical, but have you ever tried to emphasize "I"?), on the other hand, owned a Dodge NEON as the last car I owned. Right now I own NO car, and WALK to many of the places I go--rabid environmentalist that I am (see previous entry).
2 comments:
I run a large hotel (I don't make this known online so please don't reference it on my site) and drive a 10 year old Ford Escort. Meanwhile many of my housekeepers drive new SUV's, sedans, and in one infamous case, a Lexus.
I don't know that this is necessarily a sign of economic health. I think it has more to do with finagaling government assistance in some areas (insurance, food stamps, etc) and thereby freeing up spending money. Also, many of them receive unemployment while working for us, because at least in WI if you are at a part time job and the owner refuses to offer you full-time, you can make up the difference in unemployment. That's crap, because they are hired strictly at part-time (no need for more than 4 hours of housekeeping a day) but such is life nowadays.
Dan
I don't think that the eoncomy is THAT bad, but the point here was not how well the economy is doing. The point here is how WELL people in the U.S. live, whether the explanation is government assistance (and associated scams) or the usccess of our ecnomic system. I really dislike the DOOM and GLOOM about how badly everyone is doing in the U.S.
I do appreciate Dan's contribution. Obviously, what he says is mainly true. I just wanted to make clear where I was coming from. You would be amzed (or maybe not) how often I am accused by my own family and friends of WHINING (which Dan did NOT suggest I am doing). I do want to make it clear, however, for the benefit of hose loving? friends and family of mine, that I am NOT envious/jealous that my maid is driving a better vehicle than I have driven in at least 10 years. I was never much into cars in the first place. Rather, I get irritated at the constant media/lefitst drumbeat about how BAD everyone in this country has it. Those same lfetists, of course, would like to FORCE my maid to drive some sort of DINKY (if perhhaps even more expensive) vehicle that would make my Neon look like a Lexus.
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